1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic sandwich linking method and an automatic sandwich linking machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
When linking up two knitted fabrics by an automatic single linking machine disclosed in JP-B No. 3-49478, the two knitted fabrics are hooked over two sets of point needles, respectively, the positions of stitches on linking lines of the two knitted fabrics are adjusted for correct positioning at a needling position by image processing techniques so that every point needle is thrusted in a stitch, the knitted fabrics are moved together with the point needles, the knitted fabric on the point needles of one of the two sets of point needles is transferred to the point needles of the other set of point needles, and the two knitted fabrics are linked up. This known automatic single linking machine is intended specially for single linking and is incapable of sandwich linking. Therefore, it has been a usual practice to hook three edges, i.e., one edge of a knitted fabric and the two edges of another knitted fabric, over point needles arranged in a row by hand to sandwich the edge of the former knitted fabric between the two edges of the latter knitted fabric, and the two knitted fabrics are linked together by a sewing machine. This sandwich linking operation is inefficient and the automation of a sandwich linking operation has been desired.